Tuesday, August 14, 2012

The Puritan Gift

The late Russ Ackoff wrote a foreward to the paperback version of 'The Puritan Gift' (published 2009),  written by the Hopper Brothers.   The book, which first appeared in 2007 as 'The Puritan Gift: Triumph, Collapse and Revival of an American Dream' was named by the Financial Times one of that year’s Top Ten Business Books. Whilst recommended to me, I have yet to read it.  I wonder to what extent it could be claimed that the Hopper Brothers take a systemic perspective?

I note in this review it is claimed that the Hopper brothers argue that: 'As for the bad kind [of capitalism], the brothers blame post-war American business schools, particularly after the 1970s. As curricula became dominated by “financial engineering,” profit and performance were prioritized before all else.'

No comments: